


The Skiving and the Sick

by Dopredo



Series: The Moments In-Between [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Caring, Cuddling & Snuggling, For Science!, Funny, Jemma Simmons Has No Chill, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, SHIELD, SHIELD Academy, SHIELD Academy Era, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 00:50:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17632946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dopredo/pseuds/Dopredo
Summary: One-shot set back at the Academy. Simmons gets sick, and Fitz decides to skive off class (for the first time ever) to look after her. Simmons does not approve.





	The Skiving and the Sick

Simmons coughed loudly and then buried her mouth in her arm to conceal when she coughed again. A few people turned to look at her and she blushed, looking down at her chemistry project. Fitz, who was a few seats in front of her, turned to smile at her confusedly. Simmons gave him a half-hearted smile back, (which was really more of a grimace) but her face quickly became one of panic when she felt a third cough coming on. 

Wait; was it a cough and a sneeze? At the same time?

Fitz flinched and then pulled a face as the double explosion took place. Simmons pouted and gave Fitz a look of utter sorrow. The teacher, who had suddenly appeared behind Fitz, cast him a sincere look and verbally batted him around the head. Fitz looked back at Simmons, pulling an exaggerative face of terror. Simmons giggled and rolled her eyes, noticing that the teacher had seen that too.

The end of the lesson didn’t come anywhere near as soon as Simmons would’ve hoped, because she felt dreadful. She waited for Fitz outside of chem. lab, and when he appeared he looked pleased to see her, but also slightly worried.

‘Jemma, have you got that checked out? That cough sounds awful!’

‘Thank you for that,’ Simmons grumbled sarcastically, making Fitz flinch, ‘no I haven’t. Really, it’s not that bad. It’s just a little cold.’

‘It didn’t sound like just a little cold in class!’ Fitz laughed, wincing again as he realised what he’d said. ‘What I meant is that you really should get it checked out. We haven’t got any more classes all day so we can go now if you like?’  
Simmons shook her head.

‘No, no I’ll be fine. Honestly don’t worry about me.’  
She coughed again and then started to pick up the pace. Although she had told Fitz she wasn’t worried she was not going to let this illness develop any further by being outside.

By the time they had reached Simmons’ room, her coughing fit had worsened extensively. Her nose, which was bright red, seemed to be causing her an awful lot of discomfort, as she tried desperately to prevent it from running, and to hold in her sneezing, with a dripping tissue. Fitz’s face was one of compassionate worry. He put out his hand for the keys, in an attempt to save her struggling, but Simmons huffed refusing to give them to him, insisting that she was fine and could open the door with ease. Her plan didn’t work. In fact, her shaking hands managed to slot the key into everywhere other than the keyhole. 

Simmons’ shaking hands fumbled with the lock for almost a minute longer before she allowed Fitz to have a go. Fitz managed to open the door almost immediately, (as most healthy people would) but unlike most he didn’t look at her smugly, just merely rolled his eyes.

‘Come on Jemma, you’re ill. Just admit it. You’re going to have to take tomorrow off---’

‘---I am not missing class!’ Jemma exclaimed grumpily. Fitz though it was cute when she was angry with him, (which was often) but he tried to hide his smile by walking into her room.

‘Jem, you’re a brilliant student – everyone knows that. You don’t need to prove anything.’

Simmons leaned back in preparation for a sneeze and Fitz rushed to reach a tissue. Passing it to her, she sneezed with the pitch of a chipmunk, and Fitz fell onto the bed in hysterics.

‘You sneeze like Theodor!’ he giggled. Simmons frowned at him disapprovingly. 

‘Thank you, Fitz,’ she huffed sarcastically, rolling her eyes, ‘that’s very kind.’  
Fitz’s laughing faded away, replaced by a more concerned look.

‘Jemma, what is it going to take for me to make you take tomorrow off?’  
Simmons shrugged and then sighed deeply.

‘Oh Fitz, I don’t know,’ she sighed, rubbing her eyes, ‘I don’t want to get a bad reputation.’

At that, Fitz frowned thoughtfully. Suddenly a wide grin appeared on his face.

‘Well if a bad reputation is what you’re worried about, I know exactly what to do…’

********************************************************************************

‘Fitz, that’s a terrible idea!’  
Simmons - with a temperature of 31°c - lay tucked up in bed flailing her arms about with incredulous rage. ‘That could get you into so much trouble!’

Fitz giggled slightly and scratched his head.

‘Yeah, but that way we’d both have a “bad reputation” together! You realise we’re adults, right? Like, so many people bunk off classes all the time and no one cares – at least I have a good reason!’

‘That’s not the point,’ Simmons grumbled, ‘what if someone found out you had been breaking the rules? Literally the whole point of this place is to make us learn to follow rules! What if no one hired you!’

‘Wow, Jemma, you’re overthinking this. Like a lot. Oh my god, you know what we need? We need like… a life model decoy,’ Fitz grinned, ‘like a robot that could pretend to be me, and go to all my classes for me. That would make life so much easier…’ Fitz gazed into the distance thoughtfully.

‘Ugh, I don’t know. LMD’s are really cool… don’t get me wrong but,’ she coughed briefly and Fitz smiled with sympathy.

‘They’re kind of creepy?’

‘Yeah,’ Simmons smiled, ‘also they’re way to close to AI for me… that is one more Stark disaster waiting to happen.’

Fitz laughed and nodded.

‘So have I persuaded you? I mean, chem. class started like half an hour ago, so it doesn’t really make a difference…’ Seeing Simmons’ face, Fitz flinched, ‘I hid you’re alarm so you’d wake up late---’

‘---You hid my alarm?’ Simmons shrieked. She pulled the duvet off of her and attempted to get out of bed, but as the effects of her sickness hit her, she realised that there was no way she would be able to go to class. Fitz moved to the other side of the bed to steady her, and tucked her back up in the duvet. He bit his lip and smiled at her sweetly.

‘Do you need to sleep?’ Fitz asked kindly. Simmons shook her head grumpily.

‘I think you’ve let me do enough of that already,’ she grumbled.

Fitz shuffled guiltily and Simmons rolled her slightly smiling eyes, (a sign that she’d forgiven him) whilst moving across in the bed so that Fitz could join her. Fitz grabbed the laptop from the torn, leather chair in the corner, and then snuggled into the covers, looking over to check that Simmons still had enough of the duvet on her side.

‘So… Doctor Who marathon?’ he grinned, clicking the lid open. Simmons coughed vigorously, leaning her head on his shoulder self-pitifully.

‘Why not?’ she smiled, gazing up at Fitz’s eager eyes. She frowned for a second, looking a Fitz. ‘Out of curiosity, where did you hide my alarm clock?’  
Fitz blushed.

********************************************************************************

Simmons paused the screen as the 11th Doctor was just about to regenerate, and turned herself so she was facing her friend. Fitz scowled at the terrible timing, making Simmons tut.

‘But-- regenera---’

‘--Come on Fitz, you’ve seen this bit like a million times. I want to ask something.’  
Simmons looked at her friend with a tentative curiosity; his eyes smiled back carefully, telling her that she could ask him anything she wanted. She paused for a second, wondering how she was going to phrase her question. ‘Well, I was just wondering… have you thought of what you want to do when we leave here?’  
Fitz shrugged and cocked his head.

‘I mean, a little, but not much. Why do you ask?’

‘You see… I was thinking. Of course working at the Triskelion or the Sandbox would be great, but… haven’t you always wanted to, you know, work in the field?’

‘The field?’ Fitz coughed, slightly taken aback. ‘Where did that come from?’

‘Well, isn’t that kind of half the reason we all joined SHIELD? For the excitement?’

Fitz cocked his head, shrugging.

‘I mean, I suppose so. But then it just… became real, you know? The idea of being in all of that danger all the time… it’s quite…’

‘Exciting?’ Simmons grinned. Fitz raised an eyebrow teasingly.

‘No, I was going to say terrifying…’

Simmons giggled and then looked down at her intertwined hands. She didn’t know why, but she felt like, somehow, it was something they had to do. She hadn’t told Fitz yet that they had received an offer to join a high-level team, because she wanted to know it was really something he was on for. She figured if she could persuade him on the idea before, he wouldn’t be set-against it when he finally found out. Simmons looked at him hopefully and Fitz laughed and shook his head.

‘You’re going to make me do this with you, aren’t you?’ Fitz sighed.  
Suddenly he leaned back, feeling a sneeze coming on. He reached for a tissue, into which he did a very high-pitched sneeze.

Simmons gave him a knowing look.


End file.
